If I'm in a real hurry and haven't had enough vegetables that day, I just bung a packet of frozen vegetables and some marigold stock (2-3 tspn) in some water then blend & sprinkle with grated cheese to serve.

I find that soup is easy to make but what I dislike is the faffing around blending it, so I prefer unblended ones.

Spicy lentil soup -Fry finely chopped onion, diced carrot and sweet potato, bit of garlic. Add cumin and mustard seeds, turmeric and chilli. Add a tin of coconut milk and some water and a couple of handfuls of red lentils. Cook until everything is nearly done then add a handful of frozen peas, or some shredded greens etc, plus a big squeeze of lemon juice, salt and lots of black pepper. You can chop and change this in lots of ways.

Red pepper and tomato soup with crumbled Wensleydale cheese. Lovely, and very simple to make. I can't find the recipe but off the top of my head it's something like (sorry, not sure of proportions):1 tin of chopped tomatoes1 red pepper (can roast first if you prefer)1 onion1 clove of garlic1 pint veg stock

Cook until the pepper is tender, allow to cool then blend. Add cheese if desired.

Clear chunky veg soup - fry an onion, some garlic, a chopped leek till soft. Add chopped carrot, a peeled and chopped potato or two, a handful of quartered smallish mushrooms, and whatever else is lurking in the bottom of the veg drawer and starting to look a bit dubious. Fry for a few minutes, then add a few pints of stock, a bay leaf, some black pepper, and some rosemary and thyme. Simmer till all the veg is cooked. This is a clear soup so don't blend it. If you want, you can add pasta and shredded chicken to make it more filling.

Broccoli soup - Fry an onion and some garlic till soft. Add two peeled and chopped potatoes, a 1kg bag of frozen broccoli (you can use fresh but it's more expensive and you probably won't notice the difference once it's been cooked into soup and blended), and enough stock to cover. Simmer till the veg is cooked, then blend and stir in 250ml cream and season with black pepper and salt or, if you prefer, smoked paprika and chilli.

Fry up a red onion, a red pepperand a chopped potato. When slightly brown, add chopped tomatoes and mix in. Add liquid stock, salt and pepper and simmer until all veg are soft. Blend and serve with feta crumbled in.

Sweet potato soup.... Fry some chopped onions, then when they've gone soft add some chopped sweet potato and but a bit of ginger in the pan too. Cover it with chicken stock cube mixed with boiling water and let it boil until the potatoes are completely soft. I then used a hand blender to mush up the potato and onion until it's all squelchy, then add a small amount of coconut milk, stir through, add a few chilli flakes, salt and pepper to taste and then bobs your uncle you have a lovely creamy soup.

Celery soup is gorgeous. Same as above, soften up some onions in butter, add a load of chopped celery, soften that up and then bung in your stock. Season to taste and then put through a blender when it's soft enough. Celery has a completely different taste wen it's cooked. You could add some fennel or celeriac to it too.

Oh, when I say stock - I mean 'that quantity of stock, acquired by whichever means you prefer' - I use stock cubes (make up according to instructions on the packet, usually 1 cube to about a pint of boiling water) because I am lazy, other people make their own as described by nicename above.

Add some oil to a wok then add crushed garlic, a chopped onion, couple of washed and chopped leeks, a generous pinch of sage, about four or five medium sized potatoes peeled and chopped to sugar lump-ish sized bits, hot water from a recently boiled kettle, a couple of stock cubes (I put them on a big spoon, add boiling water, give em a poke with another spoon to break them up a bit and add the mush to the pan), season with black pepper, give it a stir, stick lid on wok and cook until everything's tender. Give soup a quick going over with a potato masher, serve with lots of black pepper and a swirl of cream. Easy peasy comfort food!